Friday, December 28, 2012

Ahh! finally I have my own 'Man Cave'....after nearly 24 years in the Army I have finally decided to give that hobby away and devote more time to my little family and WARGAMING!!!! So I have taken 6 months long service leave, made renovations to our house and finally finished setting up my little hobby room. What more could I desire...except maybe some more figures?

The 'Cave' is set up with an Ottoman Sofa bed, two books selves stocked to full capacity and two display cabinets full of nicely painted armies, so when I have visitors (gamers of course) they will be able to rest up in their dream room.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Elite Miniatures Australia has finally got a new website up and running (http://www.eliteminiaturesaustralia.net) after the old one was turned off in my absence over the last seven months. The site is still very basic however you should find that it will be easier to find the range your chasing and also easier to order your figures, as the site now has a shopping basket and PayPal account set up for Internet purchases.

I have not as yet listed all the ranges as this takes a little time, but you will find that I have manage to have a number of the Elite ranges completed. I will also be busy over the next few months painting figures for the site so that when you click on a figure you will be able to see it in it's painted form.

The site will also have a second hand page and painted units page which will periodically have figures and units posted up for sale (none as yet...sorry). But let me know what you think and please send through your guidance for any improvements you would like to see and I will endeavour to make the chances.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

My last post for the Christmas break are these nice Abyssinian warriors from Bircorne Miniatures. Leroy has painted this unit as allies for John's Italian colonial army in order to give a little bit of flexibility against his opponents. In Andrew's rules all warriors have a nine inch movement rate and can more into close combat more rapidly then you would sometimes like.

The next three images are again some more shots of the extensive Bicorne Miniatures colonial range. The figures pitcure are a mix of Italian and Askari crews for the small mountain gun. The figures have been painted and based by Leroy Simpson for the Fortune & Glory Colonial rule set, designed by Andrew Parr.

Mountain guns will give you an advantage against your opporisition as they can be easlily deployed into rough terrian.

Two guns make up the standard size of artillery batteries in Andrew's rules.

Today I am intending to place up on the blog images of a nice colonial Italian army that Leroy Simpson has been painting up for John. The figures are Bicorne Miniatures extensive range of colonial figures. Many of the figures have some great character, however can be hit and miss on detail and are not quite the painters dream. But from the images on this post you can see Leroy has painted the figures up beautifully and they do make for a nice unit once all are based and lead by an inspiring Italian officer.

Leroy has painted four Italian Askari units for John's army all of which had their first battle against the Dervish hoards only a couple of days ago and helped claim victory for the Italian Commander...good work boys.

Monday, December 24, 2012

What did the boys get up to the day before Christmas? Well myself and a few of the Lonely Gamer Boys (John, Jeff, Damian and Brian) played a small 820pt game of Colonial Fortune & Glory. It was a game to test out how John, freshly painted, colonial Italians and Askari play against the invading Sudanese Army.

At first the Mahdi forces look overwhelming in numbers of infantry and cavalry. However as the hordes drew nearer John and Damian's artillery and rifle fire began to inflict heavy causalities on the fast approaching mass.

The Italian Line infantry can under repeated cavalry charges from elite Dervish cavalry and a company of these fine Italian boys were wiped out to a man never to see their homes again.

However the two remaining Italian infantry companies fire devastating volleys into the charging cavalry and brought them to a halt.

Tribesmen charge the guns

Italian askari holding out in the town had a fine view of the battlefield

Dervish forces charge Italian allied Abyssinian tribesmen only to be beaten back twice before retreating from the field.

The final Dervish attack for the game was onto the township itself, which was held by two Italian Askari units. The Askari forced them back twice but were finally pushed out of the town leaving the Dervish forces in command.

In the end the game played well, but the colonial player needs to have a few units of line troops and at least a unit of cavalry to effectively force defeats on the warrior armies of Africa. For the native nations flank and rear support is essential as to is ensuring to make your units strong in order to taken on the causalities you will receive from the rapid firing breach loaders of the modern European Colonial Armies.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Ahh! I have just finished re-painting this nice little unit of Covenantor Scottish Pike I had recently got from a friend of mine. The unit was originally just painted with a basic coat and Army Painter, however on receiving then I decided to give them another coat just in the attempt to highlight the uniforms and faces. I must say that I was surprisingly happy with the end result. Figures are from Warlord Games and are based for just about any new gaming system on the market now days, so 3 to 4 figure per stand on a 40x40mm base.....no purple flowers Andrew they have advanced south of the boarder.

Ok just re-vampped the images in better light. I only have my iphone to work with so sorry if the shots are not that good. I also painted up the two flags this morning as you can not have a unit without a flag or two...all the best for Christmas.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

OK straight back into more painting and building for the Sudan campaign, in the last couple of days I put a together this nice little piece from Architects of War. The Middle Eastern house comes in two pieces - the house itself and the roof. The pieces all go together well however you will have to give the roof a little shave on the sides as the roof is a little tight to get in. Other then that it is perfect.

Internally the house house has some great little additions, a bed in one corner, a central fire place and some nice cracks in the walls which all add to the character of the house. The well on the corner of the teerrain base is also one of those great pieces from AoW which has featured a previously in an older post, however to base was looking a little plain so I added it on for a little more character.

In all I think the house will make a nice addition to the collection and it will surely to see a little action in the next couple weeks, so enjoy and hopefully I will have a few more post in the up coming weeks.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Oh! Leroy was busy on my behalf when I was away. In my absence I had commissioned him to finish painting this little Belgium colonial army for the Australian Colonial Competition in June. In all the army has a total of eight infantry units an artillery battery and command. No cavalry required as the Belgium's did deploy (as far as I can find) any cavalry units in the battles they had with the Mahdi.

Play testing these guys should be a load of fun, hopefully sometime over the next couple weeks they will get a run.